Month: June 2009

I don’t use the word “hate”. It is too strong for most of my emotions. If I did, however, I would most likely be using it right about now, with regard to HFS.
When copying the files for the disc (with hfsutils, see previous post), there are several modes that can be used to copy the files: raw, binhex, macbinaryii, text. There is also an auto mode, which tries to make an intelligent guess as to which mode should be used. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get it right for the T7G data files: it tries to copy them as text. They need to be copied with the raw mode, but the binary (which also, helpfully, contains another selection of required files) cannot be copied in raw mode. That can be copied with auto (which guesses correctly that it should be copied with the macbinaryii mode).
I think before I dig too deeply into support for the Mac version I’m going to have to learn a little more about how HFS works, and why this confusion arises. I remember a Mac-based friend trying to explain to me (about 15 years ago) all about resource forks, data forks, etc. I just sat there thinking “surely a file is a file? it start, has binary data in, then ends, and different files are interpreted in different ways”. I wish I was still in contact with that friend so I could phone him and get him to repeat the conversation…

Edit: It seems I’m not alone in my view of HFS: http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/05/linus-torvalds-calls-apples-file-system-utter-crap/

When I originally got my copy of T7G for Mac, I diligently copied all the files off it (twice, in fact). However, I now need to do it again (for reasons that I won’t go in to), but this time I have an ISO image file (I ripped it when I was faffing with the disc last time). I have since completely reinstalled my OS and I couldn’t for the life of me remember how I did it the first time round.
The ScummVM HFS wiki page is rather Windows-centric, so I had to figure out (again) how to do it on Linux (specifically Kubuntu Jaunty). I was surprised at how easy it was, but as it might be useful for others (that might be willing to play test in future ;-), I figured I’d post it here.
Once I’d installed hfsutils (e.g. sudo aptitude install hfsutils), a simple call to “hmount hfsimage.iso” does a virtual mount of the image, so any future calls to the hfsutils commands (hls, hcd, hcopy) will be referring to that disc / image.
Now, which file was it that I wanted… I knew I should have written it down…

Well, free time has been sparse for all of us. My work has gotten much more hectic (partly thanks to a promotion a couple of months back, so I can’t really complain), but I’m trying to make more time over the next few weeks for some ScummVMing. Though I will also be moving house, so we’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, my plan is to get back into it by working on T7G Mac to begin with (sighs all round, I’m sure, but 11H will come at some stage no doubt). It’s filled with little tricksy problems, not even including getting the files off the disc in the first place. In approximate order of difficulty:

• Some files need to be renamed to work
• Files are squashed into a single data archive (jvprat has written an extractor)
• Fonts are not included, as in the DOS version: native Mac system fonts were used
• Music was not MIDI, but Special Mac Fancy Format™

This last one is the real biggie, so don’t expect lovely Mac music anytime soon. I’ll probably have got distracted into 11H before I manage to get Mac music sorted.

PS Btw, if anyone wants to follow me on Twitter, you can find me here: http://www.twitter.com/hjsb. Though it’s mostly just bitching about how the artists at work don’t do what the pipeline guys tell them to.